Thought I'd start a thread so that people can share links to their 2018 video salon entries.

Here is mine 'The Oreo Dream'.

Massive thanks to all those who voted for me, enabling me to win the delegate vote this year, now to start planning for next years entry!

Congratulations on winning the delegate vote which was richly deserved. Also thanks for starting this thread. I really enjoyed watching your film in the salon. To encourage more people to participate in video production it would be good to hear the story behind each production - original idea, objectives, equipment used, techniques, editing and so on. I know I would be fascinated to hear. What do you think?

Thought I'd start a thread so that people can share links to their 2018 video salon entries.

Here is mine 'The Oreo Dream'.

Massive thanks to all those who voted for me, enabling me to win the delegate vote this year, now to start planning for next years entry!

Congratulations on winning the delegate vote which was richly deserved. Also thanks for starting this thread. I really enjoyed watching your film in the salon. To encourage more people to participate in video production it would be good to hear the story behind each production - original idea, objectives, equipment used, techniques, editing and so on. I know I would be fascinated to hear. What do you think?

Thanks Keith. I like the idea.

I can summarise mine very easily. Filmed on an iPhone SE with a cheapo chinese gimbal. Put together in iMovie over the course of a few days.

The idea behind the film came from one of my colleagues jokingly saying we should make a film called the Oreo Dream (to take the piss of the Ario Dream). So unusually I started with a title and then had to put a film together to match the title - and this was kind of it.

Filmed over the course of 9 months in Hang Son Doong and Hang En in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, Central Vietnam.

I can summarise mine very easily. Filmed on an iPhone SE with a cheapo chinese gimbal. Put together in iMovie over the course of a few days.

The idea behind the film came from one of my colleagues jokingly saying we should make a film called the Oreo Dream (to take the piss of the Ario Dream). So unusually I started with a title and then had to put a film together to match the title - and this was kind of it.

Filmed over the course of 9 months in Hang Son Doong and Hang En in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, Central Vietnam.

Any further questions please feel free to ask?

Thanks. Even more impressive now that we know the equipment you used. I know the judges picked up on the sound and for me it is the only reason for not giving it an award. Great fun. Looking forward to next year's video.

I like the idea of trying to share how we did stuff and learn from each other, here's what I put on the entry form for how/why etc it was made.

The filming done for this short was done over the course of two days as a test run for how we could improve on our production techniques. As such, there was no real plan, no script and everything was done off the cuff. To improve the quality of the video, we had invested in more bike lights and a rechargable B&Q worklight, along with a shotgun microphone, a waterproof bluetooth lapel microphone, and audio recorders. One camera used the Cinestyle picture profile which while useful above ground, underground there was insufficient dynamic range to make good use of the profile.

Davinci Resolve was used to edit together the footage as well as mixing together the audio. A significant amount of colour correcting was required to get all the cameras to produce images that looked similar. Fusion was used to composite the end credits on top of the final scene. The first 10 minute edit took approx 6 weeks to complete, with the 3.5 minute edit submitted taking approx one week to re-cut.

I like the idea of trying to share how we did stuff and learn from each other, here's what I put on the entry form for how/why etc it was made.

I really liked this video too. As a fellow videographer I already knew that a lot of work had gone into its production. I particularly liked the variety of the shots - static camera, moving camera, different camera angles and so on.

I like the idea of trying to share how we did stuff and learn from each other, here's what I put on the entry form for how/why etc it was made.

The filming done for this short was done over the course of two days as a test run for how we could improve on our production techniques. As such, there was no real plan, no script and everything was done off the cuff. To improve the quality of the video, we had invested in more bike lights and a rechargable B&Q worklight, along with a shotgun microphone, a waterproof bluetooth lapel microphone, and audio recorders. One camera used the Cinestyle picture profile which while useful above ground, underground there was insufficient dynamic range to make good use of the profile.

Davinci Resolve was used to edit together the footage as well as mixing together the audio. A significant amount of colour correcting was required to get all the cameras to produce images that looked similar. Fusion was used to composite the end credits on top of the final scene. The first 10 minute edit took approx 6 weeks to complete, with the 3.5 minute edit submitted taking approx one week to re-cut.

In the closing ceremony at Hidden Earth this year a number of initiatives were announced with the aim being to re-invigorate the video salon and to encourage greater participation. I have been privy to some of the discussion and it all sounds like good stuff - just what is needed. My thoughts are that a YouTube channel or similar needs to be created in order to showcase the video competition entries. This would also provide an archive of the videos entered year by year. This seems to tie in with Josh's reason for starting this thread. I also think that this has the potential to make the delegate vote more relevant. The videos are only shown once during Hidden Earth. They are shown in a lecture room and in my experience over several years the only people who attend, by and large, are the judges, the videographers and their supporters. Having an internet channel would mean that the entries could be viewed online prior to Hidden Earth by a far larger number of people which should result in a more meaningful vote.

As I was a video competition judge for Eurospeleo 2016 I'm also privy to the current judging criteria and I shared these in my lecture at Hidden Earth. As an ex-teacher I knew that in order to get the best exam results for my students they needed to be fully aware of how marks were allocated within questions. I can see no harm in sharing these criteria publicly as I understand that they will be changed for next year's competition anyway. So here they are.

Each criteria is awarded a score out of 5 by each judge. There are 5 criteria and 3 judges so the final score is a number out of a potential maximum of 75.

Ok I'll admit, I read this with dismay What is wrong with a video thread on the forum for Hidden Earth?? Could we not be the "or similar' mentioned above? The irony of suggesting on the forum that a social media platform used by cavers is needed - hello, here we are

It would be archived, just like YouTube and we would do our very best to promote it, prior to HE.

I would hope cavers agree the SRT races and associated skill tests were invigorated with UKC's help this year, I"m sure we could do similar with the video (and other?) Competitions.

If we'd known about the 2 Scurions available to win this year we would have let folks know - Rolf is generous with his sponsorship, surely letting cavers know about the Ghar Parau raffle and "caving tiger" prizes before HE would be a good way to support Scurion back so they continue to support cavers, etc, etc??

How would the videos posted on this forum be hosted? Would you use some kind of third party website to host them? If you do, might as well store them all together in the same place so they dont get lost.

Oh dear I do seem these days to have developed the ability to put my foot in it without really trying. In fact it seems that when I'm trying to be my most helpful and least controversial is when I make my worse faux pas. The reason I suggested YouTube or similar is simply a matter of horses for courses. UKC is a discussion platform, it's great for what we are doing here - chatting, swapping ideas, trying to arrive at a census and so on. Videos have to be hosted somewhere and then linked into a post. UKC is not a hosting service. All I was suggesting is that Youtube could be used to host the videos which could then be linked into UKC just as we have been doing in this thread, where they can be discussed. Whilst on the subject of horses for courses YouTube allows me to design how my videos are displayed and catalogued as well as providing me with a large range of statistics on where in the world my videos are being viewed, on which devices they are being viewed, the age range of my viewers as well as loads more analyses. This is something the UKC cannot provide. I am more than happy to continue to support UKC. It's great for the services it provides but it has to work alongside other internet services. Unfortunately it s not a one size fits all. Apologies for any misunderstanding.

I image monetisation is also attractive for video creators given with an AdSense account you can grab up to $2000 for every million views. Probably cover your fuel costs

Not for me, where I use copyright music under licence (as a member of the IAC), I cannot raise funds from views of my videos. I do however like my videos being in one place, and knowing where they are etc

I image monetisation is also attractive for video creators given with an AdSense account you can grab up to $2000 for every million views. Probably cover your fuel costs

There are some slightly tougher monetisation rules for YouTube since the start of 2018. To qualify to monetise at all you need at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 hours of watch time per year. Not likely an issue if you are getting millions of views, but it could take a while for smaller channels to reach those thresholds.

.... Videos have to be hosted somewhere and then linked into a post. UKC is not a hosting service. All I was suggesting is that Youtube could be used to host the videos which could then be linked into UKC just as we have been doing in this thread, where they can be discussed.

Sorry Keith, I meant for videos to be hosted elsewhere then linked to UKC as you've explained above (my incorrect use of the term 'host', Luddite remember ) - we would then do all we could to showcase the videos prior to, during and after Hidden Earth, Jane

The two films I put in were very much taken from old material. The piece of Fraggle Rock was filmed on two digging trips 2 years apart just using a hand held Kodak sport camcorder. At the time I thought it would be nice to document the dig and later in view of the tiny number of entries last years video salon thought I would do some editiing on what I had, try and improve the sound track and see what happened. Honeycreek has been on Youtube for ages and I basically entered it as is. It was a bit of fun showing an unorthodox way of getting in and out of a cave. Currently working on a Vurley film.